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EPA issues $65,000 Complaint to Idaho Transportation Department and its Contractor for federal storm water violations in Sandpoint, ID

Release Date: 10/15/2009
Contact Information: Chae Park, EPA Compliance and Enforcement Office, 206-553-1441, park.chae@epa.gov - Tony Brown, EPA Public Affairs, 206-553-1203, brown.anthony@epa.gov

(Boise, ID – October 15, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and Parsons RCI, Inc. (Parsons, RCI) a Complaint seeking $65,000 in penalties for numerous storm water violations associated with a project near Sandpoint, ID.

In the Complaint, EPA alleges that based on an inspection in early 2009, ITD and Parsons RCI were operators of the Sandpoint Byway construction site along US-95. EPA inspectors observed violations of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) Storm Water Construction General Permit. Those violations included:

• having an incomplete storm water pollution prevention plan;
• failure to initiate necessary stabilization measures, and
• failure to implement proper sediment controls.

According to Edward Kowalski, Director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement in Seattle, the Idaho Transportation Department is no stranger to the Agency’s storm water enforcement program.

“Idaho Transportation Department is somehow not getting the message,” said EPA’s Kowalski. “Over the past five years, ITD and its contractors have paid over $1 million in penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act. Their environmental management program needs to be upgraded so they can avoid future penalties.”

ITD and Parsons RCI must file an Answer to the Complaint with the Regional Hearing Clerk in Seattle within thirty (30) days after service of this Complaint.

For more about EPA’s storm water permitting program, visit:
http://cfpub1.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=6

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